The Cactus

A bus of Bronx middle schoolers pulled up to the Capitol this morning for a long-planned field trip just a few hours after the government shut down.

All Capitol tours were cancelled as the guides can’t work in shutdown.

So I escorted them in myself and gave them a personal tour. They were great!

Do we want to live in a world where even moss is perceived as a threat? - Between Collapse and Bloom

Found a good post on leaflet about moss. “They’re like tiny forests”

betweencollapseandbloom.leaflet.pub/3lyilstxjgc2n

Yeah, that was a week ago. I'm allowed to walk things back

I am being dead serious: if you are on the political left in the USA, get ready to abandon TikTok for your own safety.

No alternative currently has a replacement for the Creator Fund, but Skylight is actionable for rebuilding the communities on TikTok away feom Govt-control.

#tiktok #skylight

Tiktok's operations in the USA
-WILL be used to monitor political opposition, as the left has had a lot of influence on TikTok up until this point.
-WILL be used to flood your algorithm with pro-MAGA content the same way it happened to Twitter.

This is state surveillance incoming. #tiktok #usa

Skylight Social’s latest update!

We’ve created an FYP, featuring creator-made feeds!

⬆️Swipe up for discovery
⬅️ Swipe left (or tap right) to stay on that feed/topic

Shoutouts:
@richferro.com

#skylightsocial #skylight

Hey all! I'm investing more time in my passion for writing, which means more info about the world of Parafyx coming soon! #writing #books #thecycleofthestars

Breaking: We’ve won our lawsuit on behalf of wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains This week, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service broke the law when it decided not to protect gray wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains under the federal Endangered Species A...

This week, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service broke the law when it decided not to protect gray wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains under the federal Endangered Species Act.

www.humaneworld.org/en/blog/laws...

Neil deGrass Tyson: "How sad it must be believing that scientists, historians, scholars, economists, journalists devoted their entire lives to deceiving you, but a reality-TV star proven in court to be a lying felon is your beacon of truth & honesty"

Look, Count of Monte Cristo will always be my favorite book. But WOW there are moments in it that you want to resurrect Dumas and ask "really? That's really what you thought would make a character cooler?"

YES THIS IS ABOUT HAYDEÉ #books #montecristo #fiction #writer

Monthly reminder: Many people have a book in them, but it takes a special kind of freak to leave the Land of Laziness, cross the Plains of Procrastination and Insecurity Mountain, find the Blade of No One Made You Do This, and use it to cut your chest open and yank that book out.

AI is not just a symptom of an unfair society, it is the symbol of it. It is designed to actively make the average Joe who uses it dumber while making the men who own it richer, consuming billions of gallons in drinkable water every year.

The very *idea* of Generative AI must be slaughtered. #ai

Behold, the map of my fantasy series!

Been working on The Cycle of the Stars for ten years and got my IP copyright filing approved with the USCO! #books #fantasy #writer

The most pathetic, pitiable thing about the billionaire class is that even with all the wealth in the world, they have nothing. No burning convictions so dear they compel them to act, no great truths that they clutch to their hearts like they do gold.

They are WEAKER for their wealth #eatterich

He's also the reason attempts to unionize the wrestlers of WWE failed, leading to the death of Owen Hart and the constant painkiller abuse among wrestlers required to cope with their unreasonable working conditions, so maybe let's not pretend this dude was anti-establishment. #hulkhogan

The wildest part of this is the implication that Ozzy went up instead of leading a party train down, smashing the gates of hell open while playing Crazy train, and then immediately shagging the hot demon secretary in the welcome lobby.

So rest well, Prince of Darkness. Hundreds of millions found musical communities they feel at home in because of your work and love for art. Thy dark and rockin' throne awaits.

Ozzy's death hits hard. Joke all you want about his oddities, but the man built one of the most revolutionary genres in music with nothing but his buddies, passion, and a shit-ton of drugs.

Even now, it feels fake to say he's dead. Even in death, he's an immortal legend. #ozzy #rock #metal

The reason that all of his stories play out in EXACTLY the same way across over 50 works is that he only had one note to play, and it was how much multiculturalism genuinely scared him because of the voluntarily reclusive life he lived to avoid other races.

As someone who studied and read Lovecraft extensively as an English major...the guy was NOT good at writing. He was just prolific.

He borrowed from much better writers like Bierce, Chambers, and Poe without understanding anything about what made their work good.

As a horror junkie, it's shocking to me how many movies I can't watch anymore now that i'm a father.

Like, my god there are a LOT of movies that are very okay with horrific violence towards children in the name of genre expectation.

YES, DAMIEN LEONE, I'm talking to you.

#horror

Any government which forces toddlers to represent themselves alone in court is evil beyond forgiveness, beyond redemption, and beyond humanity.

Good night to everyone except:
-Splatterpunk writers who use SA for shock factor
-fantasy authors who write about fighting imperialism while supporting real world imperialism.
- People who use generative AI for any reason.
-people who think hope is an immature narrative theme.

#writing

These reasons are why deaths are so much more devastating when they are the result of cyberbullying campaigns. We KNOW that there is someone, or multiple people deserving of blame, and yet the law is relatively powerless to enact justice.

3. Laws punishing cyberbullies when they cause suicides DO exist in some states, but they are incredibly difficult to enforce simply because evidence is difficult to provide in a concrete manner outside of very specific circumstances.

Perhaps the biggest question is how we even prove that specific people are what caused the death. Speech is so perilously flexible that what might appear clear online becomes muddied in a courtroom.

2. It can be very difficult to prove who is most culpable in a case where cyberbullying leads to death, especially in cases like Mikayla's where she was being actively mobbed by a brigade of hundreds in this fashion.

Do we charge everyone involved? Are there degrees of responsibility?

Where do we draw the line between those, especially in a space like the internet where intent is so often difficult to prove past the layers of sarcasm, memetic subcultures, and almost universal disdain?

It opens the door to a slippery slope that courts are loath to approach, and for good reason.

1st. The second you start trying to make laws to police what is said online, even in cases where what is said is abusive and bullying, you're going to run into obstacles concerning the First Amendment and free speech.

How do courts distinguish between bullying and free speech in these cases?

Some people will be asking "why can't we go after those who did this to her? Surely there are laws to punish cyberbullies who push someone to suicide."

Well, the reality of this matter is unfortunately complicated.